Claimer: My Blog, My POV

Occasionally, I will mention my job, my public service activities, and other aspects of my life to offer my readers a better perspective on where I'm coming from. But to be clear:

"The views that I express represent my own opinions, based on my own education and experience, not the opinions of any other entity, party, or group to which I belong. I give these opinions in my individual capacity, as a private citizen, and as someone who gives a good gosh darn about his community, his country, and the truth."

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I've been letting Pat Powers carry the water on Initiated Measure 10 (the Madville Times 2008 Voters Guide on all the issues and candidates is coming later this month). He's been doing a fine job covering the numerous problems with this proposed law since summer. There are some good aspects to the law, so I'm not quite ready to cast a final decision...

I have all the local and state candidates’ signs on my front lawn as well as their bumper stickers on my car. On another note, why don’t you have a Dykstra or Lien bumper sticker next to your McCain stickers? And, why don’t you have any yard signs? I guess that is a personal choice and not how the State and Local Republican parties encourage members to participate. So we all have freedom of choice, which is why we all fight the fight. By the way, cute Corgi.

As Powers notes, Pisani is not a next-door neighbor with easy access to this information about Powers's yard, vehicle, and dog. It's not exactly the sort of public record one can Google. Powers draws the conclusion that Pisani must have sources paying particularly close attention to his house, and that Pisani's text is intended to intimidate.

More importantly, Powers makes this observation about the connection between such campaign tactics and the intent of the law those campaigners wish to pass:

The thing is, we should not be shocked. Initiated Measure 10 is all about intimidation. If passed, it will use threats of legal action to prevent the expression of free speech. If the AG won't prosecute, it uses threats of bypassing him in the process [Pat Powers, "Yes on 10 Campaign Uses Stalker Tactics to Try to Intimidate Opponent!" South Dakota War College, 2009.10.01].

Oh well. At best, Pisani is just playing tough, fantasizing she's a big-city mafiosa, come to show us small-towners who they do things downtown. But her words also demonstrate a lack of judgment that reflects poorly on the ballot measure she's trying to support.

757-990-8981 - This number keeps calling our line and are trying to sell Dish network with a free DVR. I don't know how they got the number, it is unlisted and only used for our electrician's to call into the office. I pressed one to speak to a sales rep. When I started to tell them who I was, they hung up on me. I called the number back and it said that our number was removed. I know that I have done this in the past and they keep calling our office.